Hydrogen cars head to the showroom
Cars that run on hydrogen and exhaust only water vapour are emerging to challenge electric vehicles as the world's transportation of the future.
Cars that run on hydrogen and exhaust only water vapour are emerging to challenge electric vehicles as the world's transportation of the future.
At car shows in Los Angeles and Tokyo on Wednesday, three carmakers unveiled hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to be delivered to dealers as early as next spring.
South Korea's Hyundai Motor announced in Los Angeles that it would be the first to the mass market in the United States, with a hydrogen-powered Tucson small SUV for lease next spring. Meanwhile, in Tokyo, Toyota announced plans for a mass-produced fuel cell car by 2015 in Japan and a year later in the US. Honda also plans to have a hydrogen-powered car out in 2015.
Hydrogen cars are appealing because unlike electric vehicles, they have the range of a typical petrol-engine car and can be refuelled quickly. But hydrogen cars still have a glaring downside - refuelling stations are scarce, and they're costly to build. And critics say they're still a long way from mass production.
You’re literally ripping the electrons from inside the molecule
Even as battery-powered and hybrid-electric cars publicly took on conventional petrol models over the past few years, carmakers continued to research and develop hydrogen fuel cells, said Paul Mutolo, director of external partnerships for the Cornell University Energy Materials Centre. Manufacturers were able to overcome safety and reliability concerns and were now limited only by costs and the lack of filling stations, he said.
